Since 2015, composers-performers-conductors Anna Webber and Angela Morris have brought their compositions and playing skill to their Webber/Morris Big Band, 18 stellar New York improvisers integrating improvisation and composed material in unorthodox ways & with extra-musical sources, heard here at Roulette in Brooklyn in 2018 and at Buckminster Forest in 2019.
Label: Greenleaf Music Catalog ID: CD-GRE-1075 Squidco Product Code: 28738
Format: CD Condition: New Released: 2020 Country: USA Packaging: Digipack Recorded at Roulette Intermedium in Brooklyn, New York, on November 27th, 2018, except tracks 2, 7, 8 recorded on October 20th, 2019 at Buckminster Forest.
"The heyday of the big band is over. The era when the 18 musicians in a swing band could tour the country together and each make a living (a 52-week salary, in fact) playing the music of Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Bennie Goodman, or the Dorsey Brothers is a thing of the past. So, is the big band dead in 2020? Far from it. NYC-based saxophonists Anna Webber and Angela Morris are at the forefront of a wave of young, modern composers dead-set on pushing the historic art form into the future. The situation has changed, however. Leading a big band in 2020 is an undertaking of pure passion, a labor of love. It is no longer a feasible way to make a living as a musician, or a possible path to widespread international recognition and fortune as the composer/bandleader. In fact, it is nearly impossible to not lose money on such a venture. Composing and arranging for big band takes a considerable amount of time, and simply getting 18 musicians in one room for a performance, not to mention rehearsals, is a daunting task to put it mildly. Yet there is a small but persistent new class of composers who, despite all of the difficulties presented by this pursuit, are committed (addicted even) to exploring the compositional possibilities that only this large ensemble formation offers. New York Times jazz journalist Giovanni Russonello referred to the big band as "a vessel of grandiose possibility," and enthusiasts of modern jazz are fortunate to witness this new class revolutionize what is possible, harnessing the power of this classic ensemble in ways never before heard.
While there is a precedent for what they are doing, no other ensemble sounds quite like the Webber/Morris Big Band, an 18-piece ensemble comprised of NYC's brightest and most in-demand improvisers mostly under the age of 40. While I'm sure both would cite Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, and other composers from the golden era of big band as influences, their main inspiration can be more directly traced to the modern large ensembles of John Hollenbeck (with whom Webber studied composition), Darcy James Argue (with whom Morris studied composition), Maria Schneider, Jim McNeely, and Bob Brookmeyer. The debut album Both Are True will firmly place Webber and Morris in the next generation of NYC's elite large-ensemble composer/bandleaders alongside Miho Hazama, Brian Krock, Remy LeBoeuf, and Jihye Lee, all who have received international acclaim for modern big band albums released in the past five years. Like all of these young composers Webber and Morris draw musical influence from outside of the scope of the traditional big band. From Morris' minimalist leanings on "Coral," which features an extended trumpet improvisation by Adam O'Farrill over a dilatory wash of chords, to Webber's nod to Iannis Xenakis on "Rebonds," during which guitarist Dustin Carlson will surely win the hearts of any fans of David Torn or Marc Ducret (fans of Webber may recall that her critically acclaimed Clockwise was written entirely in homage to her favorite percussion pieces by 20th century composers). There are countless additional examples throughout the album-the noise intro on "And It Rolled Right Down," the vocal chorale to close "Climbing On Mirrors" (yes, the whole band sings), or Webber's minute-long multiphonic improvisation before launching a tour de force solo over Morris' prodding background figures on the title track "Both Are True." The list goes on. In a 2019 interview with Kurt Gottschalk, Webber says the goal is to "try to make it sound the least like big-band music as possible," and Morris quite aptly follows with, "It's an interesting challenge to take a form that has a legacy and try to do something new with it." Seems to hit the nail on the head, and it is a challenge that both Webber and Morris successfully conquer track after track on Both Are True."-Greenleaf Music